Double figures!! Woohoo!! Party time indeed. Let's see if I get to triple figures... On to business then,
Today’s readings
Genesis 21:1-23:20
Matthew 8:23-9:13
Psalm 7:10-17
Genesis continues today with the birth of Issac who, for such an important bloke in the big picture, really only does three things. Two of them are in today's passage. He's born and he nearly gets sacrificed. Quick points about chapter 21. Issac's birth is obviously a huge deal to Abraham but he realises that it is a blessing from God and Sarah too is full of praise. God follows through on his promises and we need to learn to trust Him no matter how long it takes or how stupid it seems.
Then we see Ishmael being sent away and even though Abraham and Sarah reject him, God doesn't forget our promise. I like that here is a God who doesn't take sides. God hates evil, he doesn't ever hate people and will always love someone no matter what circumstance they're born into. God provides for them as He promised and makes Ishmael into a huge nation.
Then we get the biggy. God tells Abraham to go and kill his son as an thank you to God for all His blessings. Now this seems backwards. God's blessings ARE Isaac so why should Abraham kill him? Not to mention that Abraham would have been personally torn up about this. And yet, Abraham, who has messed up countless times, finally trusts God's word and God's plan and goes ahead with it. Now God stops him and honours his trust and faith with even huger blessings but what a test hey? To me, and this has required a fair bit of thinking, it seems like God isn't testing Abraham. I don't think He would have condemned him if Abraham hadn't done it. I don't think God would have loved him less. But to me it seems like this passage is saying that in certain situations it might seem like you know better than God. You might think that you probably should stand up for what you believe but that would mess things up for you, or that you should offer to help someone but someone else will do it so it's not needed. Well here God gives the craziest instruction and Abraham follows it and reaps the benefits!
Finally we have the death of Sarah. Point one is that Sarah died at age 127 even though God said earlier than people would only live to 120. I'm not going to ignore contradictions like this because I think that's insulting to the Bible. To me the 120 figure is a human explanation of about how long people lived. So maybe you can live over that, God's not going to zap you on your 120th birthday as a rule... The only other thing that I got out of this passage is how cool Ephron is. Despite his sucky name (booo to high school musical) he is desperate for Abraham to use his land as a burial patch. Kind of a precursor to Jesus' own death.
Onto the New Testament then. We get some big Jesus activity today. First he stills the storm, then he heals two guys and then he heals a paralytic and calls another disciple. Now the storm story is a nice reminder of the start of Genesis with God/Jesus being in control of all creation. I also like that the disciples are scared and human and that Jesus has to sleep. This guy is human, not Superman.
The interesting thing about the healing of the demon possessed men isn't the speaking demons or the suicidal pigs, though it's cool that once the demons had legs they RAN from Jesus. To me I find it fascinating that after Jesus performed His miracle, people pleaded with Him to leave the whole region! Now that to me shows just how holy Jesus was. Evil flees in terror and people are scared because they realise that not only, as we found out yesterday, does this guy practice what He preaches but He has huge amounts of power to back up His wishes. People were scared that Jesus could force them to live they lives they ought to. Wow. Now there's a challenge. Would you be happy for Jesus to force you to lead the life He wants for you? What's in your life that you couldn't possibly give up but know that you should? Wow...
And then Jesus shows that his power isn't just for show or for helping people out. His power is directly linked to the forgiveness of sin. It seems like Jesus is saying here that you can't receive the fullness of His blessings if you don't realise first that you need to say sorry and be made right with Him. People complain that they don't see God but these people won't change their lives so that they CAN see God. And verse 8, here's a odd one. People see are filled with awe. Now they're not pleading Jesus to leave but awe is a powerful thing. Awesome as a word has lost so much of it's meaning but true awe leaves you speechless, not quite understanding or believing what you're seeing. And that can be scary. We need to br praying not just that we see God's awesome glory but that we're prepared to receive it and praise God rather than being scared and clinging to what we want for ourselves.
We finish up with Jesus calling Matthew the tax collector and making the point, which should have been obvious to the Pharisees, that Jesus has come for those who need Him most. This is also fantastic news as we can trust that whenever we truly need Jesus, He'll be there for us.
Finally our Psalm today carries on from yesterday's. And it's full of amazing pictures of how powerful our God is. Remember all these pictures and images of this powerful warrior who will protect and defend you for when you really need to hear it. And what's really cool is that David finishes by pointing out that even though God is armed to the teeth and is protecting him, it's his enemies who are their own downfall. God won't actively try and hurt people as He loves all of them, even those who are against us but he ensures that people who aren't following His ways will be in trouble because of their own actions.
Much shorter today but I've got to dash and watch a load of Police Academy :) Oh I wanted to say a quick word about this whole burning the koran thing that's going on. Personally I think it's disgusting and crazy. I hate the fact that this guy seems to think that a Christian response to tragedy and hurt should be destruction and hatred. Where's the loving attitude? I don't believe that the Koran is holy but I think the motivation of this guy is just plain wrong and un Godly.
That's all for now. Have an ace weekend and I'll see you tomorrow. Questions, criticisms and comments welcome as always.
Jon
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